A poem by Alexander Pope (1688-1744) , the greatest English poet of “Augustan” or Georgian period
When simple Macer, now of high renown,
First fought a Poet’s Fortune in the Town,
‘Twas all th’ Ambition his high soul could feel,
To wear red stockings, and to dine with Steele.
Some Ends of verse his Betters might afford,
And gave the harmless fellow a good word.
Set up with these he ventur’d on the Town,
And with a borrow’d Play, out-did poor Crown.
There he stopp’d short, nor since has write a tittle,
But has the wit to make the most of little;
Like stunted hide-bound Trees, that just have got
Sufficient sap at once to bear and rot.
Now he begs Verse, and what he gets commends,
Not of the Wits his foes, but Fools his friends.
So some coarse Country Wench, almost decay’d,
Trudges to town, and first turns Chambermaid;
Awkward and supple, each devoir to pay;
She flatters her good Lady twice a day;
Thought wond’rous honest, tho’ of mean degree,
And strangely lik’d for her Simplicity:
In a translated Suit, then tries the Town,
With borrow’d Pins, and Patches not her own:
But just endur’d the winter she began,
And in four months a batter’d Harridan.
Now nothing left, but wither’d, pale, and shrunk,
To bawd for others, and go shares with Punk.

A few random poems:
- Closing by William Butler Yeats
- On Being Brought from Africa to America by Phillis Wheatley
- Яков Полонский – Нищий
- The Promise of the Morning Star poem – Amy Lowell poems | Poems and Poetry
- The Colloquy Beneath by Margaret Marie Hubbard
- Михаил Кузмин – Утешение
- Mungojerrie And Rumpelteazer by T. S. Eliot
- Вера Полозкова – Манипенни, твой мальчик, видно, неотвратим
- doughnuts for sale by Raj Arumugam
- Sonnet 01
- The Trouble with Snowmen by Roger McGough
- Loves Blindness
- Владимир Маяковский – Шляпами панов не забить… (РОСТА №222)
- We Are To Play The Game Of Death by Rabindranath Tagore
- Николай Языков – Д. Н. Свербееву (Во имя Руси, милый брат)
External links
Bat’s Poetry Page – more poetry by Fledermaus
Talking Writing Monster’s Page –
Batty Writing – the bat’s idle chatter, thoughts, ideas and observations, all original, all fresh
Poems in English
- a_choka_is_a_littoral_drift.html
- the_solitary_oak_on_mount_kremlin_bicetre.html
- the_prison_of_the_past.html
- The Dead Woman by Pablo Neruda, La Muerta
- pathos_is_the_skyward_tanka.html
- nominalism_is_a_liquid_kuhi.html
- eclipse_of_love.html
- divided_passion.html
- death039s_claim.html
- dear_bhikkhu_a_eulogy.html
- as_with_a_senryu_s_hardening_ridge.html
- A Gogyohka and the Forgotten Panopticon
- a_faded_postcard_is_a_tanka_daydream.html
- krishna039s_advice_to_arjuna.html
- krishna039s_advice_to_arjuna.html
- Exodus by Michael Nikoletseas
- Saint George the Dragon by Michael Nikoletseas
- heal_me_slowly.html
- gazebo.html
- all-days-seem-same.html
More external links (open in a new tab):
Doska or the Board – write anything
Search engines:
Yandex – the best search engine for searches in Russian (and the best overall image search engine, in any language, anywhere)
Qwant – the best search engine for searches in French, German as well as Romance and Germanic languages.
Ecosia – a search engine that supposedly… plants trees
Duckduckgo – the real alternative and a search engine that actually works. Without much censorship or partisan politics.
Yahoo– yes, it’s still around, amazingly, miraculously, incredibly, but now it seems to be powered by Bing.
Parallel Translations of Poetry
The Poetry Repository – an online library of poems, poetry, verse and poetic works
Alexander Pope (1688 – 1744) was a a post-Restoration English poet and satirist. He is a poet of the (British) Augustan period and one of its greatest artistic exponents.